“This year in January, she was arrested for selling her babies”
A blind woman from China sells her children off because she cannot afford to keep them and her husband does not have a steady job to take care of the children.
Du Xiurong, from Shibei Village in Mianyang, south-west China’s Sichuan Province has between 2005 and 2012 sold so far four of her babies, new-born. Three boys and one boy. “I have no other choice. If I were not blinded I wouldn’t have to do this,” she said. “I am not selling them out, but giving them away. In return I only charge a bit for pregnancy fees. I love babies. If I were capable, I definitely would bring them up. But I really can’t support them. I then find them good families to adopt them.”
Du insists she has done nothing wrong. “I gave out babies to families which can’t give birth. They want babies and I helped them. Rich people give out money for a daughter’s wedding. Middle-class people earn money for a daughter’s marriage, and poor people sell sons and daughters.”
This year in January, she was arrested for selling her babies, but she was released not long after due to her disability. She was blinded in an accident when she was five and got married at 14. “My parents saw me as a burden,” she said. “They wanted to get rid of me as soon as possible. So when they knew someone wanted to get married with me they couldn’t wait to push me out.” Talking about her husband, Du said, “As a normal person, he can’t earn any money. On the contrary, I, a blinded person, had to support the whole family.”
She gave birth to her first baby boy, Cheng Jin, in 1991. Then in 2000 she gave birth to her first daughter, Sun Miao. When they started growing up, they realized they needed money for among things, the children’s education. It was then that she made a choice to give birth and sell off the babies.
In 2005, Du sold her second daughter for 2,500 Yuan (£268). In the following seven years she sold three more babies. Since China has a one-child policy, Du has had to hide her pregnancies from the village officials. “If I was discovered, they would force me to abort. I can’t let them do that,” she said.
In total Du has sold her four children for around 10,000 Yuan (£1,070). She is already a grandmother and is planning on how to educate her grandson. “I’ll give the boy a good education, even if I have to sell everything.”
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